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Big Brother 1
| image = Big Brother 1.jpg | presenter = Davina McCall | channel = Channel 4 | run = July 14, 2000 - September 15, 2000 | days = 64 | housemates = 11 | winner = Craig Phillips | runner up = Anna Nolan | previous = N/A | next = Big Brother 2 }} Big Brother 1 was the first series of the British reality television series Big Brother. It is based upon the Netherlands series of the same name, which gained notoriety in 1999 and 2000. The series debuted on Channel 4 on 18 July 2000, running for nine weeks until 15 September 2000. Early in its run, the series was met with controversy for numerous reasons, including its use of professional psychiatrists who analyzed the personalities and actions of the contestants. Forty thousand people applied to participate in the first series. These were whittled down to ten contestants: Nick Bateman, Andrew Davidson, Melanie Hill, Nichola Holt, Thomas McDermott, Anna Nolan, Caroline O'Shea, Craig Phillips, Darren Ramsay and Sada Wilkington. Though not expected to be a big hit by Channel 4 producers, the series proved to be a major success. The first week of the series saw over 400,000 voters call in to evict a housemate, while on the final week 7.8 million people phoned in to choose the overall winner. The series averaged 4.5 million viewers, with a series high of 10 million viewers on the final night. The series attracted considerable media coverage, particularly regarding the antics of housemate "Nasty" Nick Bateman, who was eventually ejected from the house on Day 35 for rule violations and replaced with a new housemate, Claire Strutton. The show lasted for a total of 64 days, culminating in housemate Craig Phillips winning the grand prize, and Anna Nolan coming in second place. Several housemates from Big Brother 1 returned to later installments of the show. In 2004, housemate Nick Bateman and Melanie Hill appeared in the spin-off series Big Brother Panto along with nine other former housemates. Eventual winner Craig returned in Big Brother 10 to participate in a task. Nick later returned with other former housemates to compete in Ultimate Big Brother, and entered on Day 1. He ultimately came in 5th place. Anna, Darren, Caroline and Craig all returned for Ultimate Big Brother as well, participating in various tasks. Production Broadcast The contestants entered the House on 14 July 2000. The first episode was broadcast on 18 July 2000 at 9pm. The contestants were recorded 24 hours a day with cameras fixed around the House, and had to wear portable microphones. Each night, with the exception of Saturday, Channel 4 broadcast a daily highlights show, and from the second week there was a live eviction show hosted by Davina McCall, where the evicted housemate was interviewed. During the live eviction episode, a short segment titled "Little Big Brother" was aired, which featured children recapping the week and using guinea pigs as examples. In the nightly highlight episodes, viewers are shown various highlights of a specific day in the House. During one of the weekly highlight episode, a group of various psychologists provided commentary throughout the episode. Their statements revolved around the statements made by the housemates, as well as an analysis of their body language and relationships throughout their time in the House. The live eviction episode was held on Friday, with a pre-eviction episode and an official eviction episode being held with a two hour gap between them. Footage of the House was available live on the Channel 4 website, however the video and audio quality was rather poor. The series ended on 15 September 2000 after 64 days in the House. The ratings grew over the course of the program, reaching 10 million watching the final episode on 15 September 2000. Prizes The ten housemates were in the game, competing for the grand prize of £70,000. House The Big Brother House was located in Bow, east London. The house for the first series was very basic, as part of the theme of the series. A living room was featured in the House, with blue walls lining it and the kitchen, which featured a stove and sink, along with the fridge. The House featured two nearly identical bedrooms, one for the men and one for the women. Each room featured five beds, with matching sheets and furniture. There was a shower room and toilet in the House as well. Housemates could communicate with producers in the room known was the "Diary Room". The Diary Room for the first season featured a simple design, being a small chair with a white background. Future seasons of the series would feature more elaborate Diary Rooms. The Diary Room was where nominations took place, and where housemates could reveal their thoughts. As seen in the third week, housemates could be seen by a medical professional in the Diary Room if necessary. The outside of the House featured a chicken coop with various chickens inside, from which the housemates collect eggs. Unlike other editions of the show, Big Brother 1 did not feature a swimming pool or hot tub for the housemates to use. There was also a garden in the backyard, which featured a vegetable patch which the housemates could use. Various two way mirrors are in the House, with a camera crew behind it. There are also various cameras and microphones throughout the House, providing the housemates with no privacy. While in the House, the housemates made various changed to the House. On Day 3, housemate Nichola began putting clay on her body and pressing herself against the wall, making body art on the living room walls. The others later joined her, leaving various hand prints and body figures on the walls. They also made letters out of clay and hung them on the walls. On Day 15, the housemates were allowed to paint portraits of a fellow housemate shortly before the first eviction. The House later decided to hang their paintings on the walls. Housemate Nichola later used magazines to make art on the walls in various rooms of the House, including a musical note in the girls' bedroom and a hand next to the Diary Room door. On Day 41, housemates were given a jacuzzi to use. Format Big Brother is a game show in which a group of contestants, called housemates, who are unknown to one another, live in isolation in a custom built "house", which includes everyday facilities such as a fully equipped kitchen, garden, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. The housemates have no contact with the outside world; no mobile phones, television or newspapers are available to them. The House is also a television studio with cameras and microphones in every room to record the activities of the housemates 24 hours a day. There is even a camera in the toilet, although contestants are assured beforehand that footage of them going to the toilet will not be broadcast. The only place where housemates can escape the company of the other contestants is the Diary Room, where they are encouraged to voice their true feelings. Not all Diary Room footage is broadcast due to the privacy of the contestants. Housemates share cooking and cleaning chores among themselves, which usually provides plenty of tension. Housemates must also live by the fundamental rules of Big Brother; if the rules are broken it can result in formal warnings, various punishments or even a housemate's removal from the House. They have to wash their own clothes by hand, and make their own bread from scratch. There was a vegetable patch in the garden. There were also chickens, whom the housemates had to look after and gather eggs from. If all food runs out in the House, Big Brother provides emergency rations of chickpeas and rice. Each night, the housemates were also given a discussion topic, and they would have group discussions in the living room. Over the duration of the series, Big Brother would set the housemates a main weekly task and various smaller tasks which tested them in many ways, from mastering circus skills to memorising facts about each other. They were also put to the test by their own ideals, prejudices and opinions against other people from different walks of life; something that has survived from the original "social experiment" of Big Brother 1. Each housemate was given a daily allowance of £1.50, which they could pool together at the end of the week and spend on food and luxury items. They would have the chance to increase their shopping budget by gambling a percentage of it on successfully completing their weekly task. Successful completion of other tasks would result in a reward like a film or a crate of wine. Each week (Mondays on Big Brother 1) every housemate had to enter the Diary Room to secretly nominate two of their fellow contestants for potential eviction and give a reason for their choices. Failure to do so could result in a punishment, such as a reduction in the prize fund. Contestants were never told who nominated them and were forbidden to discuss nominations, attempt to influence the votes of others or engage in tactical voting. The two or more housemates with the highest number of nominations were then revealed to the House and the nominees would face a public vote conducted by phone. The contestant receiving the most votes from the viewing public was evicted from the House the following Friday evening. On eviction night, there were two live eviction shows held. In the first, host Davina McCall would reveal to the housemates who the public had chosen to evict from the House, though the percentages were withheld from the group. The evictee would then have two hours to prepare to leave. At the start of the second episode, McCall would announce that the evictee had a minute to say their goodbyes and exit the house. She would lead them to a studio for an interview, highlights of their best moments, and a reunion with friends and family. During the final week, there were no nominations. The public would vote on who of the remaining three contestants they wanted to win Big Brother. On the Friday evening, the individual with the fewest votes would be evicted immediately and leave for their studio interview. Voting would then resume for the next two hours, and during the second eviction show McCall would announce the overall winner of Big Brother and the £70,000 prize. Housemates The original ten housemates entered the House early on Day 1. Starting with the second week, one housemate was evicted each week until only three remained on the final night in the House. Claire Strutton entered the House on Day 37 as a replacement for ejected housemate Nick Bateman. Summary Week One On Day 1, the ten original housemates (Andrew, Anna, Caroline, Craig, Darren, Melanie, Nichola, Nicholas, Sada and Tom) entered the house. On Day 2, the housemates were given their first shopping task by Big Brother. This involved making clay pots and plates, of which no more than three were allowed to crack. The housemates failed this task. However, Nichola put the clay to use by applying it is as body paint and imprinting herself against the wall naked; Craig, Melanie and Andrew also stripped off and joined in. Week Two On Day 9, the second weekly task was set to the housemates; they had to remember ten facts about the other housemates and then answer three questions apiece in the Diary Room. Four days later, they successfully passed the task. The housemates discovered that they had run out of tea bags, which caused friction between tea addict Caroline and some of the boys. On Day 10 Darren revealed that he was feeling morose because he was missing his daughter's first birthday, so as a surprise Big Brother arranged for her birthday to be filmed and shown to the housemates. Day 11 was the first eviction nomination day; the results reflected the boy-girl divide in the house. All five men voted for Caroline and Sada, while Mel was the only woman to nominate another woman (Sada). Sada and Caroline learned that they would have to face the public vote, with six and five votes respectively, just ahead of Andrew who received four. Nick made a point of consoling Caroline and Sada in turn, even though he had actually nominated both for eviction. Following her nomination, Sada considered walking out of the house, though she decided against it. On Day 15, Sada became the first ever person to be evicted from the Big Brother house, after receiving 55% of the vote. Week Three On Day 16, the housemates were given their third weekly shopping task. Using an exercise bike, they had to cycle the equivalent distance of Land's End to John O'Groats via all of their home towns; a trip of 1800km. Having hurt his knee in a fall the previous day, Craig was allowed to speak to a physiotherapist. Craig's injury meant that he was excused from the task for several days, which annoyed several housemates, especially Caroline. Darren also got some time off, citing a sore knee and a bad back. As the task started late, the housemates were given 300km off the total length they needed to cycle. They divided the riding up into one hour sessions through the day and night. They passed this task earlier than Big Brother had foreseen. On Day 18, the housemates nominated again. This time Andrew and (for the second week running) Caroline - were nominated, receiving four and five results respectively. On Day 19, the group chose a film that they would be able to watch after they performed a play about a murder mystery. They chose to watch Happy Gilmore. Craig and Caroline clashed again, when she accused of him of laziness. Craig continued the feud the following morning, and they had to be split up by the other housemates. Mel was also growing suspicious of Nick's duplicity, noting how he had offered to let Nichola and Caroline stay at his house after the show ended, yet he later implied that it was not a serious offer. On Day 22, Andrew became the second evictee, after receiving 68% of the public vote. Mel was particularly upset by Andrew's departure, as they had grown close over the previous three weeks, and they shared a kiss on Andrew's final night. Week Four On Day 23, the housemates were given the fourth weekly task, which dictated that they had to learn the Semaphore signalling system. They then had to both send and receive messages to a partner via this system of communication. Two teams failed to correctly transmit their message, leaving the house with just a £47 shopping budget for the following week. Furthermore, when the storage room opened, the housemates were asleep, so they missed their opportunities. On the morning of Day 24, a model helicopter flew over the house attempting to drop leaflets into the garden. The leaflets were from The Sun newspaper, urging housemates to evict Nicholas. The group were ordered to remain in one of the bedrooms while security teams removed the leaflets. On Day 25, Caroline and Thomas were nominated to face the public vote. During a late night conversation about George Michael, Nick commented on Michael potentially propositioning a child in a public toilet, which angered several members of the group, Anna in particular. On Day 28, Mel confided in the Diary Room her hope that Thomas would survive the vote, as he was the person she had grown closest to since Andrew's departure. She also reported that Nick had confessed to her and Thomas that his story about his wife being killed in a car crash, which he told to the group several weeks previously, was a lie, which had disturbed Mel. Meanwhile Darren's request to Big Brother to grow one of the hen's eggs into a chick was rejected. Big Brother ordered all of the housemates into the girl's bedroom, citing a security drill. Unbeknownst to the housemates, it was actually a real sweep of the building in response to claims made in the tabloid press that Nick had smuggled a mobile phone into the house; nothing was found. Darren had gone to bed late, and was still in bed at 1pm. When he came out to moan about Nichola loudly singing outside his bedroom, it ended in a furious row. On eviction night, Caroline failed to survive her third vote, and was evicted, receiving 62% of the public vote. Just before she left the house, Darren and Nichola made up. Week Five The housemates woke up to find an assault course had been installed in the garden. They learned that for their fifth task, each housemate would have to complete the course and their combined time had to be under eight minutes. Nick took the lead in training them, having told the group that he spent two years in the Territorial Army. As Thomas and Mel watched him clumsily practising on the course, they wondered to themselves whether he had really been in the TAs. They passed the task on Day 34. To celebrate Nichola's birthday, Big Brother provided the housemates with some treats and novelty clothing; her chosen theme was orange. On Day 32, Craig and Nichola were nominated for eviction. Darren was concerned about the health of the chickens, as some of them had diarrhoea, and was allowed to take them to a vet in the Diary Room. On Day 34, the housemates had to write a song and accompanying lyrics to perform the next day. On Day 35, after weeks of public controversy about his antics, the other housemates finally discovered Nick's duplicity and confronted him about it. Craig learned from Thomas that Nick had apparently been encouraging other contestants to vote against him. Craig and Darren searched through Nick's suitcase and found pieces of paper with housemates' names written on them. At a fiery House meeting, Nick initially denied any wrongdoing, but it was established that he had a pen and paper in his possession (both against house rules) and had been showing various names to other housemates, in an attempt to influence nominations. Some were completely shocked by the revelations and some, especially Darren and Nichola, were very angry. Mel and Thomas admitted that Nick had also shown them pieces of paper with names on. Nick went to the Diary Room to confess to Big Brother and was ejected from the house that day. He made his peace with everyone before leaving and that night the house, still in shock at the day's events, had a toast to him. Big Brother decided that the following day's eviction would go ahead regardless. On Day 36, Nichola was ejected from the House after receiving 72% of the public vote. Week Six Big Brother rules stipulated that any housemate who was ejected or left the house of their own volition (other than when evicted by a public vote) must be replaced. On Day 37, Nick's replacement arrived: 25-year-old Claire, who brought some Chinese takeaway food with her as a welcome gift. On Day 38, their sixth weekly shopping task began. The faces of the eleven past and present housemates would randomly appear over the fence at any time between dawn and dusk. They had to note the order in which the 100 faces appeared, memorize them, and recite them in the correct order to Big Brother. The group passed the task. On Day 39, the next round of nominations took place. Claire was exempt, as it was her first week in the house. A tie in the voting meant that four housemates - Anna, Craig, Darren and Tom - were nominated to face the public vote. On Day 40, a vet had to enter to take care of the chickens, so the housemates were banished to the girl's bedroom during that time. Meanwhile Craig and Claire, the only two non-smokers in the house, played a prank on the others by secretly hiding the only lighter and some cigarette papers. On the morning of Day 41, Craig discovered Big Brother's latest gift to the house: a jacuzzi. Later that day the housemates were set a mini-task in which they had to outfit another housemate and then parade them in front of the others. Craig asked Big Brother if it would be possible for them to eat one of the chickens. Big Brother considered the request but rejected it, as the worming treatment given to the chickens would make them unsafe to eat for 28 days. That night all the housemates boistrously celebrated in the jacuzzi. On Day 43, Tom was evicted with 30% of the public vote, just 1% ahead of Darren. Week Seven On Day 44, the housemates were given their seventh weekly task, which was to make life-sized free-standing sculptures of themselves using chicken wire. Everyone except Melanie failed the task, meaning the group failed as a whole. After running out of alcohol, the housemates were given a wine-tasting test in which they could win five bottles of wine if they correctly identified the most expensive one from a choice of three. They were successful and won the prize. On Day 46, the next round of nominations took place. However, several housemates overheard Darren's choices (which were Craig and Melanie). Melanie was particularly upset, prompting a guilty Darren to ask if he could change his nominations. Big Brother decided to make all the housemates vote again. Everyone kept their original choices, except Darren, who switched his vote from Melanie to Claire, which meant that just Craig and Claire were up for eviction. Had the first round of votes stood, it would have been Craig, Claire, Darren and Melanie. The incident angered a number of housemates, and Melanie thought it "cowardly" on Darren's part. On Day 50, Claire was evicted from the House, receiving 79% of the public vote. This was the highest margin of public vote to evict someone in the series. Week Eight On Day 51, the housemates were set a task in which they had to learn circus skills to perform for Big Brother: staying on a unicycle for ten seconds, juggling for 30 seconds and walking across a tightrope. Anna and Melanie particularly disliked the task, and the group failed in their 20% wager. On Day 53, the final nominated housemates were Craig, Darren and Melanie. It was the first time the latter had faced an eviction vote. On Day 55, they were set another task, to impersonate another housemate, dress like them and stay in character for two hours. They completed their task, but to their bemusement the reward turned out to be a Bobby Davro video. Then, on the same day, they were set a task in which they had to make a newspaper reporting stories about what they believed were happening in outside world. They imagined what the former housemates had done since leaving the Big Brother house: suggestions including Sada running a tofu helpline, Caroline winning a lipgloss contract and Nick working in a nursery showing the children pieces of paper with words written on them. On Day 57, Melanie became the eighth person to be evicted, after getting 69% of the public vote. Week Nine On Day 60, the housemates received a three-part task of mind, body and soul. The first part required them to learn the highway code, which they would then be tested on; the second part tested physical abilities, including press ups and shooting baskets; and the third part involved caring for an artificial baby (which they named Juanita) for 24 hours each. It was a three-day task of 'mind, body and soul'. Anna won the task, and her reward was a party theme of her choice, which was a Spanish night. As a treat, Big Brother played each housemate's favourite song for them. For Anna's party on Day 63 the group were provided with tapas, traditional Spanish costumes and the ingredients to make Sangria. Anna was also allowed to have an album of her choice played at the party: she picked Madonna's Immaculate Collection. Darren and Anna decided to invite anyone who worked on Big Brother to come along to the party; no one showed up. With the public now voting to choose the overall winner of the show, Darren was the first to be evicted on the final day, as he had the fewest votes of the trio (13%). Hours later, Davina McCall announced that Craig was the winner of Big Brother and the £70,000 prize, having received 51% of the over 7.5 million public votes. Outside he was reunited with all of his former housemates, including "Nasty" Nick, who presented him with his prize. Craig quickly revealed that he would be using all of his prizemoney to help pay for a heart and lung transplant for childhood friend Joanne Harris. Week Ten In week ten a documentary aired called 'Inside Big Brother'. Tasks Nominations table Notes As a new housemate, Claire was unable to nominate or be nominated. In week 7, Darren's nomination for Melanie and Craig was overheard by the rest of the house. Big Brother decided to cancel all the nominations and the housemates had to nominate for a second time in which Darren changed his nominations. Had this not happened, Claire, Craig, Darren and Melanie would have faced the public vote. There were no nominations in the final week. The public voted for who they wanted to win. Nomination totals Trivia *This series was the only one, where a contestant's eye was used as an official logo. In this case, that of Melanie Hill's. *Darren Ramsay was the only housemate from this series to have a child. *Nick Bateman was the only contestant not to receive a single eviction nomination from any of his fellow housemates. Category:Big Brother UK